57 Years Old And Fighting Fit

Launched in 1965 in India’s financial capital, the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS), Mumbai is among the country’s oldest and best known management institutes. It now has an alumni base of over 8,000. The Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies has provided management leadership in the country through a range of programmes, like the Master of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Master of Management Studies (MMS) with specialisation in Finance, Marketing, Operations, HR and Systems, MSc Finance and the part-time MMS programme. The institute is affiliated to the University of Mumbai.

Srinivasan R. Iyengar, Director and Professor, JBIMS, elaborates on the emphasis given to knowledge, innovation and creativity at the institute. “In the current competitive environment, a knowledge-based economy plays an imperative role in higher education institutions. As a learning institution, JBIMS will be capable of delivering knowledge and skills, producing excellent graduates, improving innovation and creativity,” he says.

  Talking of the infrastructure augmentation at the institute, he says, “We witnessed that good investments for renovating buildings, classrooms, library, and equipment are crucial elements of learning environments, quality classrooms and good library, well equipped with hardware and software facilities. Our teaching pedagogy is case-study based and using simulations for practical learning experience. We developed our own customised LMS for better instruction that improves student outcomes.”

*Emphasis Areas

The curriculum has been designed with the help of industry experts and learning happens through case studies, field visit projects and assignments. The curriculum has been so designed that its objectives can be amalgamated with sustainable initiatives to improve learning. “There is growing recognition of the significance of exposing students to sustainability education, which involves introducing the principles, values and practices of sustainable development into all aspects of learning. By linking such sustainability initiatives with academic disciplines enhance student engagement and bring about progressive environmental stewardship,” says Iyengar.   

Yet another focus area is fostering the entrepreneurship culture, on which the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 also lays immense emphasis. Iyengar says, “Entrepreneurship is a learning process that encompasses risk taking, tenacity, and opportunity seeking. This implies that entrepreneurial knowledge could be acquired through learning. We at JBIMS believe in identifying entrepreneurship as a creation of new businesses or business units within an existing organisation – corporate venturing or intrapreneurship.  We prepare students to work in a dynamic, rapidly changing entrepreneurial and global environment.”

*Covid Response

Iyengar speaks for the entire B-School fraternity when he says, “Covid-19's suddenness, ambiguity, and volatility forced the educational system to react quickly and adapt to the new learning landscape.” Talking of the swift transition to digitisation that became imperative during the pandemic, he says, “Since most programmes are now virtual, geographic boundaries do not matter. Students can enrol in virtual courses offered by universities abroad. This competition is likely to grow, forcing Indian institutions to quickly improve and evolve their programme design and delivery. The majority of Business schools have adapted to the digital revolution with the emergence of MOOC, Small Online Private Courses, and AI.” 

“Indian business schools are able to create new programmes which are accessible, cost-effective learning, with better employability solutions and with world-class infrastructure,” says Iyengar.

Changing Placement Ethos

The rapidly changing business environment requires agility, concedes Iyengar. He says it has made the application of knowledge critical in management education. Engaging students in the learning process has become an irreplaceable source of competitive advantage for management educators, believes Iyengar. Business schools are focussing more on development of soft skills, analytical skills, and general know-how.

 Students can no longer be selected solely on the basis of their academic credentials. Instead, their ability to work in teams, their communication skills and their leadership potential need to be taken into considerations. The success of a business school in future will depend on collaboration between all the key stakeholders and their ability to create a dedicated strategy for managing relationships. The JBIMS is aligned to these needs of business and the corporate world, as the recent placements from the institute demonstrate. 

As Iyengar says, “The final placements are testimony to the fact that we take consistent efforts in upgrading our academic curriculum to ensure that our students receive the best of industrial learning owing to our distinguished faculty. Consulting emerged as the top recruiting sector with offers being rolled out to a whopping 39 per cent of the batch, making JBIMS one of the most sought-after campuses for students aspiring to get into the consulting domain across the country.” 

Placements from the JBIMS reveal a roughly 20 per cent jump in salaries offered to graduates this year, of an average annual CTC (cost-to-company) of Rs 27.63 lakh per annum. The median annual CTC stands at Rs 26.49 lakhs per annum, with more than 10 per cent of the batch securing offers above Rs 34.18 lakhs per annum. More than  25 per cent of the graduates fetched salaries above Rs 31.54 lakhs per annum.